Some of my guiltiest pleasures is the feeling that I’m being let in on a best kept secret, musically. It’s the feeling I have when I receive a CD or DVD in the mail of someone who I am not familiar with but should’ve been and, yet, know that only those who are really, really deep into music know about a particular artist or band. Such was the case when I received the DVD, “John Ginty Bad News Travels Live”. Holy cow!

If you’re not familiar with Ginty, he’s an amazing keyboardist – especially on a Hammond B3 or vintage vibe piano/Fender Rhodes. This guy is flippin’ phenomenal! He’s jammed with many of the great artists we know and love like Santana (also played on the “Shaman” CD), Govt. Mule, Allman Brothers Widespread Panic, Bob Weir and many others. He was also a founding member of Robert Randolph’s Family Band and was a member of Jewel’s touring band.

In addition to the aforementioned “Shaman” album, he’s played on a ton of other CDs by people such as The Blind Boys of Alabama, Citizen Cope, Bad Religion, Todd Sheaffer, Neal Casal and many, many others.

Following last year’s release of Ginty’s critically acclaimed “Bad News Travels” CD, he and his band (along with some very gifted friends) piled into the Showplace Studio (click here to learn about this amazing studio) to recreate live the music from that CD. In addition to his band (Mike Buckman/Guitar, Paul Kuzik/Bass, Dan Fadel & Andrei Koribanics/Drums), Ginty was joined by Albert Castiglia, Todd Wolfe, Cris Jacobs, Alexis P. Suter and Jimmy Bennet. Together, they create an incredibly memorable event that is worth watching over and over again.

In addition to the phenomenal music on this DVD, there’s a couple of really cool “extras”. One shows how Ginty hauls his gear. As an occasional roadie for my cousin’s band, I really can appreciate the intelligence Ginty puts into hauling his ton o’ gear. The other “extra” is a “behind the glass” look at the legendary Showplace Studios. Techies and musicians, alike, will love this segment.

If you love rhythm and blues, rock and music that gets your funk up, you must get this DVD.